Schumer Floor Remarks on the Senate GOP Trumpcare Bill and the Russia Sanctions Legislation
Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer today delivered remarks on the Senate floor regarding the need for bipartisanship in crafting health care legislation and the current state of the Russia sanctions legislation. Below are his remarks:
Mr. President, from all indications, my Republican friends continue to negotiate amongst themselves, behind closed doors, to revive the healthcare bill they had to pull from the floor on Tuesday.
I’d suggest to my friends on the other side there’s no tweak or change or modification will fix what’s wrong with this Republican healthcare bill. The core of the bill is the problem. The American people are opposed to tax cuts for the wealthy and the reduction of the social safety net (of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid).
The Republican Trumpcare bill is built on a crumbling, decrepit foundation…and that’s because it’s based on the premise that special interests and a very small number of very wealthy Americans deserve a tax break, while millions of Americans – middle class families, older Americans in nursing homes, folks with a pre-existing condition – ought to receive less healthcare at a higher cost.
The idea is so backwards, so out-of-step with what America wants and what actually works, it can never succeed, no matter how it’s tweaked.
The one thing my Republican friends are latching on to – that their bill will bring down average premiums several years down the line – is really a bait and switch. The bait is lower premiums, but the switch is higher deductibles and co-pays so that in the end the average American pays more than they would have otherwise. They’re luring people in with a lower premium, but then they have to pay such a higher percentage of their medical costs, the insurance policy is worthless.
The Republican Trumpcare bill tells insurers they can offer much less generous healthcare plans than under the current system, even allowing states to opt out of covering Essential Health Benefits like treatment for opioid abuse, mental health coverage, prescription drug coverage, maternity care.
The result of these changes is that insurers may charge smaller premiums on some plans, BUT they’ll cover way less, and in fact, the deductibles and co-pays will go up, way up in order to make up the difference. So this isn’t oh you’re not paying for some esoteric item. Your insurance policy will pay for virtually nothing at the beginning, if you have a high deductible. The CBO report estimates that for an average 40-year old with an income of 26,500 a year looking at insurance on the marketplace, deductibles would increase by the thousands. If that 40-year old decided on a “bronze” plan for instance, their deductible would be $6,000 a year, CBO estimates ($5,200 more than under current law). So you know what that means? You have to pay the first $6,000 of healthcare, no matter what your insurance policy is. What good is that? Not much. Good for the insurance industry, maybe, not good for the average citizen. So, some of my colleagues on the other side are claiming they want lower premiums, but if those lower premiums come with higher deductibles and higher copays, nobody benefits. It’s a bait and switch.
What the Republican bill gives with one hand, on this area, it more than takes away with the other, because the lower premiums are made up for by higher deductibles and co-pays, so the average person pays more, not less, even when their premiums go down.
Who in America believes that folks should have higher out-of-pocket costs than before? Who in American believes that folks making over a million dollars a year – God bless them, they’re doing well – deserve another $57,000 tax break?
Who in America believes that we should be making it harder to afford nursing home care, or maternity care, or opioid abuse treatment?
Who in America believes a child born with preexisting condition should hit their lifetime insurance limit before they even leave the hospital for the first time? Who believes that in this America?
Turns out – almost no one. A poll yesterday showed that only 12% of Americans support the Republican bill. No amendment or compromise or adjustment in formula can solve that.
So I repeat the offer I made to President Trump and my Republican friends yesterday: let’s start over. Drop this fundamentally flawed approach – abandon cuts to Medicaid, abandon tax breaks for the wealthy – and we can discuss the problems that Americans are actually concerned about: the cost, quality, and availability of healthcare.
I suggested that President Trump invite all Senators to Blair House to begin anew on a bipartisan approach to healthcare.
Unfortunately, the President said I wasn’t serious. Mr. President, try me.
The minute you make the invitation, we’ll take it in a very serious way.
It’s not that audacious an idea. President Obama did the same thing early in his presidency to discuss healthcare with members of both parties in front of the American people.
Our only condition – drop the wrongheaded idea of slashing Medicaid to give tax breaks to the wealthy – is perfectly reasonable and a vast majority of Americans agree with us.
Nonpartisan institutions like the AMA, the National Association of Medicaid Directors, the AARP and America’s largest nursing home groups are all against the Republican approach; the Congressional Budget Office and other expert analyses say it won’t actually fix the problems in our healthcare system (which are high deductibles, high premiums, counties with too few insurance options); and the American people are as roundly against it as any piece of legislation, major legislation, I’ve ever seen.
So I don’t believe it’s unserious to ask my Republican friends to drop this particular bill and talk to us about actually fixing the problems in our healthcare system.
I don’t believe it’s unserious to say to President Trump: you campaigned on bringing costs down and providing care for everyone; you campaigned on not cutting Medicaid and controlling the outrageous costs of prescription drugs, these are all your words in the campaign, – well we Democrats agree with all that – so let’s talk about it.
And, fundamentally, I don’t believe that seeking a bipartisan solution on the great issues of our time should ever be considered unserious.
President Trump: you’ve complained about a lack of bipartisanship – unfairly in our opinion. We’re offering a way to implement bipartisanship…and right now, it’s you, not us, who’s stopping it.
I’d hope my Republican friends, President Trump, the Majority Leader, think long and hard before dismissing our offer out-of-hand. And I’d challenge them again to invite us all to Blair House the first day we get back from recess. You think we’re not serious? Try us.
Democrats are ready to turn the page on healthcare. When will my Republican friends realize it’s time for them to do the same?
Finally, Mr. President, a word on Russia sanctions.
On June 15, nearly two weeks ago, the Senate, in an act of bipartisanship, passed a tough Russia sanctions bill on a 98-2 vote. There are few things of such significance that this body does with such a large bipartisan vote. Democrats and Republicans, all but two, coming together.
The Majority Leader, Senator McConnell, and I worked hard to pass it before a possible meeting between President Trump and President Putin at the G20 Summit. We wanted to send a message to Mr. Putin: if you interfere with our democratic institutions, you will be punished. These new sanctions should also help deter future Russian interference.
At the Speaker’s request, I hope this morning the Senate will pass a technical correction to address the blue slip issue. It’s important for Speaker Ryan to get the House to act on this legislation before July 4th’s recess.
It's critical, critical, that Congress speak in a loud, clear, and unified voice to President Putin: interfering with our elections -- the wellspring and pride of our democracy for over two centuries -- will NOT be tolerated and the United States will always respond, forcefully, including with the power of economic sanctions.
I want to put the House on notice: if they water down the bill, weaken the sanctions, add loopholes to the legislation – they will find stiff resistance here in the Senate.
Mr. President, later today we’ll break for the July Fourth recess. The Fourth of July is a day to remember the audacity of a ragtag group of colonies who declared themselves free and independent from the tyranny of one the great foreign powers, mighty foreign powers.
What better way to mark the occasion than for Congress of that once fledging nation, now the mightiest nation in the world ourselves, to pass a bill that says, 241 years since that fateful day: we intend to defend our democracy as fiercely as the patriots who put down their plows and took up their muskets on Bunker Hill did.
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